Like the delightful and oppressive mobile-game galaxy that it summoned, Tetris is both seductive and dispiriting. Alexey Pajitnov’s falling-block puzzler captures the pleasure and the vacuousness of virtual labor. Each game of Tetris contains an interactive “Ozymandias,” a fruitless quest to build something that will… »7/16/15 9:29pm 7/16/15 9:29pm

If Football—that is, the American National Football League football—used the same naming scheme as "Dungeons & Dragons," we'd call it "Beer Commercials & Cheerleaders." »2/01/15 12:47pm 2/01/15 12:47pm

Around this time last year, the man with two dicks and an award-winning attitude took the internet by storm, earning himself the fourth-highest ranking AMA on Reddit and gracing the pages of every website you've ever visited. And then he wrote a book, which is so thirsty I wanted to ship him a crate of Gatorade… »1/19/15 10:12am 1/19/15 10:12am

Can adding springs—polycarbonate or rubber—to the soles of running shoes help you run faster? We tested three new shoes from Adidas, Reebok and new Swiss brand On Running to find out. Surprisingly, the answer was a pretty definitive yes.»8/28/14 4:42pm 8/28/14 4:42pm

Twenty-five years ago my best friend and I set up a wrestling ring in my basement—four barstools for the turnbuckles, some old mattresses for the canvas. The actual wrestling we did was hesitant, unplanned and uncompelling. But man, the stuff we did out of the ring makes me smile to this day. »11/04/13 6:05pm 11/04/13 6:05pm

Rockstar Games has scaled a mountain with Grand Theft Auto V, creating the best-looking, best-sounding and, most importantly, best-playing version of gaming's most notorious franchise. Scaling one peak, however, reveals another—their cloud-piercing ambition to create a great ensemble video game drama, an epic of… »9/16/13 12:16pm 9/16/13 12:16pm

There are far worse places to be on a summer Saturday morning than the Smorgasburg food festival in East River State Park. You have a view of Manhattan from the Midtown skyline to the Williamsburg Bridge. If you're bored you can chat with other people in line, most of whom recognize the inherent silliness of… »8/28/13 3:39pm 8/28/13 3:39pm

The meanest thing I ever did in high school I did to a senior on the football team. His teammates were in my computer class, snickering about his hope of playing big time ACC football. I was a scrawny sophomore trying to be popular. I helped them forge some Clemson letterhead, and signed it "Head Coach Danny Ford." »7/05/13 1:16pm 7/05/13 1:16pm

Spike Lee is such a confident filmmaker that when one of his movies doesn't quite work, you almost wonder if it's your fault for not getting it. Secure in his talent for sweeping emotions and powerful visuals, he sets out to make a masterpiece with each new movie, and the worst thing you can say about him is that he… »8/10/12 5:48pm 8/10/12 5:48pm

1. That The Campaign could never come up with a fictional scenario that would rival the absurdity of what actually happens in our daily political discourse is an obvious point, yet one that needs to be made again nevertheless. Is any sort of shtick that Will Ferrell could dream up odder than a reality in which Newt… »8/09/12 6:40pm 8/09/12 6:40pm

1. The first three Jason Bourne films had an intensity, a vitality to them that made them feel urgent and relevant, grounded in the messy real world of global capitalism and a U.S. government that was alternately confused, corrupt, and terrified. The movies didn't have a specific politics other than paranoia:… »8/08/12 5:55pm 8/08/12 5:55pm

1. As a skeptic of the original Total Recall, I was ready to give its remake more than a fair shake. My primary issue with the original is how little it does with the film's initial, fantastical Philip K. Dick premise, that the difference between reality and fantasy is not only slim but perhaps irrelevant; that film… »8/03/12 4:30pm 8/03/12 4:30pm

1. The first two Batman films from director Christopher Nolan were so transcendent, so ambitious and challenging and grand, that The Dark Knight Rises feels like more of a disappointment than it should. The first two movies, especially The Dark Knight, were miracles, an impossible combination of universal themes,… »7/18/12 1:45pm 7/18/12 1:45pm

Oliver Stone approaches every film he makes as if it's the biggest, most important movie that will ever be made on the subject. When he's working with material to match his grand vision—JFK, Talk Radio, Nixon—he can produce hallucinatory film experiences. »7/05/12 5:09pm 7/05/12 5:09pm

1. The Amazing Spider-Man is less a reboot than a recital. It's professionally made and competent and sincere and well-acted, but it never quite overcomes the nagging sense that there's no reason for it to exist. Well, actually, there is a reason: Sony, to keep the rights to the character, needed to rush a movie into… »6/29/12 2:30pm 6/29/12 2:30pm

1. Of the myriad problems with Ted, Seth MacFarlane's flaming, masturbating fart of a comedy, the biggest one is that the teddy bear at its center is neither cute nor funny. The movie thinks he's both. For the movie's promising central joke to work—that a boy's teddy bear comes to life and then grows up alongside him… »6/26/12 4:15pm 6/26/12 4:15pm

1. One of my favorite Roger Ebert quotes goes like this: "The Muse visits during the act of creation, not before. Don't wait for her. Start alone." That's to say: To create great work, you must first work. Not everything you create will be perfect; in fact, most of it won't be. But you can't wait for inspiration to… »6/21/12 5:20pm 6/21/12 5:20pm

1. The brand Pixar has become so powerful and so reliable in the last decade that we forget that's all it is: A brand. We assume every new Pixar film will be well thought out and impeccably constructed, like the Pixar crew is one hivemind that taps into the American subconscious and springs a neverending well of… »6/19/12 12:30pm 6/19/12 12:30pm

1. Wes Anderson is considered by many to be a cold, dispassionate filmmaker more interested in creating miniature worlds to run around and play in than creating well-rounded, relatable human beings to inhabit them. You constantly hear the word "dollhouse" referenced when people discuss Anderson, a twee boy… »5/23/12 5:58pm 5/23/12 5:58pm